SEPTEMBER 14TH, 2016

My family is Eternal!I am not one to talk much about religion. Not because I am ashamed or anything like that. I am LDS (AKA Mormon) and I am proud to be. However, I believe that religion is an extremely personal subject. But on such a special occasion like our Temple Marriage, how could I not share?!

Chris & I were Civilly Married on the Provo Orchard grounds on August 14th, 2015. A year later with our son, we went to the LDS Temple where we had a "Celestial Marriage", a ceremony we refer to as a Sealing. Through this ceremony, we believe that we can be together after this lifetime for Time & Eternity!

Oh you guys, we waited to be sealed in the Temple for a whole year! Actually, we waited longer! As some of you know, I was married once before and the process of getting a Temple Marriage annulled was a very lengthy one! But we made it and we did it!!!!

Our Temple day couldn't have gone more perfect! As they were sealing Chris & I, my heart was racing and I was just so excited! I couldn't believe that I was getting sealed to the man I had been dreaming of for so long! To top it off, once they brought in our son to get sealed to us, all dressed in white looking like a true prince, I lost it! And as they say, there were no dry-eyes in the room. It was truly such a special moment.

Leo was 2 months at the time and he slept through the whole thing, but he sure made this moment feel so so unreal! Many people suggested we get sealed while we were pregnant and before Leo arrived but I wanted Leo physically present in the room with us and I am so so glad we waited for him!

I absolutely love the Teachings of the LDS Church! I am not perfect, nor do I claim to be or ever be. I have made my long and deep share of mistakes, and I know that I will make more mistakes in this life. However, I know that Heavenly Father loves all of us and through His Atonement, we can be forgiven and start new. Life is not perfect, nor is it meant to be, but striving to Be Like Christ has brought knowledge, comfort, and happiness to me.

You can learn more about Mormons and The Teachings of the LDS Church HERE.

PS: HUGE shout out to Roxana Baker Photography. Our usual photographer, Who shall remain nameless because she is still amazing, had to run out of town! I stalk Roxana's Photography and I asked her about a week before and she came and delivered!!!! She was a dream to work with and so fun! And a HUGE shout out to Kayloni at Mandie Sue Salon. This awesome girl worked on my hair for hours and made it look so dreamy. And even though the wind was crazy that day and it even started to rain a bit, my hair cooperated! Great girls to work with!

Hello Future Mr&Mrs Married Couple!This is for you!

Chris and I figured out a 'Small Wedding' hack, so naturally we need to share it ;)

Chris and I decided long before we were officially engaged, that we wanted to Elope.PS: If you're new here; Chris and I were High School Senior Sweethearts. Fast forward to almost 10 years later, and many failed relationships in between, we started dating and dated for 11 months before we tied the knot.

Anyways, we told our parents, and they were very supportive about it! We couldn't have been more thankful! The day after we started planning, we both decided we wanted to have our parents there! Then we said "Okay, immediate family ONLY! And immediate family are the ONLY ONES to know the date and place!" We couldn't have been happier with our decision!

I was once married before. My first wedding was the furthest from what I wanted! There were over 500 guests, some of which my groom and I did not know. We ran out of food very quickly. My groom and I sat with strangers at an improv table that was 'bleh'. The reception turned into a zoo and a disaster as kids were running around, tearing down decorations. The music got out of hand.... and so on. Even after being newly married to my ex-husband, I remember feeling so sad and regretful on how our wedding had turned out. So as soon as Chris and I started talking marriage, I knew I would want to do this 100% differently!

We wanted something Small & Intimate, but that did not mean It was not going to be beautiful and special. I mean, if you know me, you know my smallest efforts are still measurable. However, I did not want to spend near us much as my first wedding cost and I definitely wanted to skip lots of meaningless and cheesy details that unnecessarily add up! I wanted our day to feel Intimate, elegant, and to feel like it was about just us and our love.

BEFORE GETTING MARRIED

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TELL YOUR FAMILY & BEST FRIENDS BEFORE-HAND:+ Personally inform your family. Let them know of your plan long in advanced. Call them, email them, take them out to lunch, etc. Some may not understand, but if they truly love you and your future finances, and understand what weddings are really for, they WILL support you.

MAKE A WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT:+ Literally, just that. Announce that you are getting married privately but that you will have a small celebration before hand. And send those cute Announcements out!

HAVE AN 'ELOPING' CELEBRATION BEFORE THE WEDDING+We had an 'We're Eloping' party a few weeks before we got married. +Our invitations said, just that. It was to make our friends understand that this was the One & Only celebration related to our union and that way, if they wanted to catch us and share the love with us, this was the only opportunity.

We made our party Adorable + Fun + Simple. We decided to do a Black & White Theme. We rented a gazebo in a beautiful park in Provo Canyon. We had Black & White decorations. I wore Black, Chris wore White. Guest wore both. We had a Grilled-Cheese Sandwich Bar and a Brownie Bar. We had water games, music, and a Selfie Backdrop. We even had a Couple's Registry that was all mobile. And guess what... people came, celebrated with us, gave us gifts, we had fun, they supported us, our parents gave a toast, and that was that! And it was a BLAST!

GETTING MARRIED

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MAKE A ROUGH-DRAFT WEDDING PLANMake a list of ALL the things you want. Include the cost of everything and add it up.

SET A BUDGETNow that you're rough draft has revealed how much a wedding can burn your pocket, Set a realistic and economical Budget.

PROCESS OF ELIMINATION:Decide what really matters and what you can live without (AKA what you won't care to include in your wedding album)

ONE-TIME SPLURGE PASS:Decide on a FEW key things that you will allow yourself to splurge on!For me, it was the photographer and the restaurant. Everything else, I bargained-shopped and shopped-around until I found killer prices and all else did not make it to the list!

STICK TO YOUR FINAL BUDGETAfter you have created your Rough Draft Wedding Plan: Review the Budget and stick to it!

Though Chris and I both had great jobs and were more than happy and capable of paying for our wedding, our families insisted in pitching in specially where it was such a small wedding! They wanted to feel like they were involved in the planning (though there wasn't much)! ;)

Chris and I ended up saving about 5k in total.A portion was used for our wedding.A portion was saved for our new apartment's downpayment.A portion went to our New Life's Savings.The rest we put it towards our honeymoon!

You guys! Where should I begin?!Our day was truly perfect! From beginning to end and every detail in between was amazing!

Getting Ready

We scheduled our wedding ceremony to start at 5pm! Which made the anticipation crazy! Forget butterflies, I had a parade in my stomach all day long! However, I had the whole day to pamper and be pampered! I started with yummy breakfast with my family, then I went to get my nails done with my sisters, went to my hair appointment, went back home, started getting ready, and my mom did my makeup. It was perfect!

The Ceremony

My dad picked me up and drove me to the ceremony spot: The Provo Orchards! We were jamming toColdPlay on our way there and more specifically: Sky Full of Stars (the stars aligned for this moment).

We arrived at the Orchards! We lined up to walk down the isle and our song started:Come Away With Me by Norah Jones Instrumental/Piano Version! Yup I walked down the Orchard isle to that song! We've always had a sweet spot for Norah.

The only thing I wish I would have done differently was having Chris face his back to everyone until I got up there so that *I*could see his "First Look" Reaction but his face was still pretty priceless when I looked up!

We started at 5:30 and the ceremony was done by 5:45! When I said we wanted a very small, private, and short wedding... We were not kidding. We asked our bishop to go straight to marrying us and he did! It was the best! Seriously, no regrets!

Oh yeah.... our wedding arch tried to blow away, so our dads stood up and held it down throughout the rest of the ceremony. NBD!

Right after the ceremony & hugs, we started family pictures and then bridals. We were done by 7 and off to dinner!

The Wedding Dinner

We celebrated our wedding at La Jolla Grove, Provo Utah. It is one of my favorite restaurants so we booked one of their private dinning rooms. After dinner, Chris and I had our first dance right then and there. Our first dance was to Northern Wind by City & Colour.

After our first dance, we had cake!!! We were so excited about this. We requested our awesome cake artist a white cake with raspberry frosting and Dulce De Leche filling! She said she couldn’t make any promises but that she would try her hardest and just surprise us either way! When we cut our cake, it had Dulce De Leche filling! I guess you can say, this was the equivalent of a Gender Reveal Cake to us !!! We were thrilled! And it was truly so delicious. Ugg I can still savor it......It's the little things!!!

After cake, we were off to a weekend in Salt Lake to kick off our honeymoon before we left to St.Croix, Virgin Islands for A WHOLE 2 WEEKs!

More Girly Details...

Where did you get your dress?Okay this was the craziest hunt! I found the picture of my dress on pinterest and it all started from there. All I had was the name of the photographer. I had to stalk the photographer to find out who the designer was. Once I found the designer, I browsed her website. I didn't see the dress so I emailed. The dress was limited and sold out.........! So I had it replicated by DHGate.com ...in CHINA! .....I know! Crazy risky and I heard all the many horror stories. Nonetheless this was the dress I wanted and it was still going to be a thousand times more affordable! And if it didn't work out as a wedding dress, it would have been a really cute photoshoot dress and I would have just taken a trip to my nearest David's Bridal!

Anyways, I am a size 2 but I ordered a 4 just to be safe. When it arrived, it was just as I imagined it! It was beautiful and perfect but it fitted a tiny bit lose, so I got it altered! Ta-da!!! Got my dream dress!!!!! The best part: my mom paid for my dress as my wedding gift! Cue tears <3

Where did you get your flowers?I got the flowers from The Flower Patch, Provo the day before! My awesome sister in law sat with me and helped put all-things-flowers together the night before.

I loved making our flowers! Because the wedding was going to be small & private, we were able to hire services for everything BUT I didn't want to feel disconnected from wedding planning and details so I decided that I wanted to make my bouquet. Rachel put together all other flowers, the wedding arch, and our paper flowers. That was all we wanted for decorations! I wanted the Orchard to be the real decor.

Where did you get Chris' ring?I got his ring at Forge Jewelry. Terrible name. Amazing service. Even more amazing jewelry. His ring is a traditional band, comfort fit, yellow gold, with a gold brushed texture finish.

Thank you - Thank you for the love! -The Newly Mr.&Mrs. RomRell

AUGUST 14TH, 2015

OH HI!!!!I am officially a Romrell and life could not be better!!!Everything about our day was so perfect and I can't wait to share details of our beautiful wedding, so in the meantime, enjoy pictures from our phones!

We are on an air plain right now on our way to our Honeymoon! We are heading to St.Croix(In the Virgin Islands) !!!You can follow along our adventure on our Instagram!XOXO